


Turns Out Someone Might Care After All

by PineapplesForDays



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Comfort, Depressed Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt won't let him, Idiots in Love, Jaskier just wants to be sad, M/M, Supportive Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26039536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineapplesForDays/pseuds/PineapplesForDays
Summary: Jaskier is very familiar with the loneliness that comes with his depressive episodes. When a certain white-haired friend comes to check on him Jaskier doesn't know what to do with himself.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 14
Kudos: 110





	Turns Out Someone Might Care After All

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to 'I can't afford therapy so I'm just going to write all of my problems away' the musical! lol, jokes.

Jaskier laid on his couch in his small house all by himself. There was a blanket tangled around his legs and another wrapped around his head. He was watching a nature documentary about penguins. Maybe watching wasn’t the right word. He was staring at the tv, cornflower blue eyes empty, as the documentary provided background noise. 

To say Jaskier had been feeling a little depressed was an understatement, he had been lying like this for at least 12 hours. He had on the same clothes from 3 days ago and had salty paths etched down his cheeks where he stopped caring to wipe the tears away. There were bags of snacks and tv dinners strewn across the floor in a 3-foot radius from the couch taking over the coffee table in front of him. 

Even though Jaskier was on medication for his depression he still found himself in slumps like these from time to time. He didn’t like to bother his friends with his problems, as he was supposed to be the happy, carefree friend, so when his depression decided to use him as a punching bag for a few days, or weeks, Jaskier commonly found himself in a situation like this. Sad, tired, and alone, zoning out with the tv on.

Time started to blur together, that'll happen why you don’t bother to look at a clock for days at a time, but Jaskier figured it had been about 5 days since he left his house last and 2 days since he stopped answering his phone, which he had lost at some point. Jaskier was set and ready to spend another night sad and alone when he heard a knocking on his door.

The musician glanced at the door before settling back into the couch, he couldn’t be bothered to pretend like he wasn’t sad right now and whoever it was would go away soon. After a few minutes the knocking turned to pounding and he could hear his name being called through the door. 

Intrigued Jaskier sat up on the couch, the pounding came again and what sounded a whole lot like his friend Geralt said “Jaskier! I know you're home! I can see your car in the driveway! Open the door!”

Geralt was at his door? His very attractive friend Geralt, the one he totally hadn't been crushing on for months? Well that was no good, there was absolutely no way he was going to allow his strong, attractive, crush see him like this.

Clearing his throat Jaskier called back without getting up from the couch, “Geralt? I'm sorry but I'm not really up for hanging out right now, maybe another time.” The musician was surprised with how smooth his voice sounded even though he hadn't used it in several days other than to yell at whoever was on the tv.

Geralt called through the door again, “I'm not here to hang out, I’ve texted you several times and you haven't answered me in 2 days.”

Jaskier was more perplexed, people didn’t come and check on him when he stopped responding, usually they just went off to find someone else who would answer them, so why was Geralt here instead of off with someone else?

Still sitting on the couch Jaskier called back, “oh, heh, my bad, must've been distracted, I'm fine though, you can go”

Jaskier could hear the annoyance in Geralt’s voice, “we’ve been friends for months and the longest its ever taken you to respond is 10 minutes so I'm not buying it, please open the door, I'd like to see you.”

Jaskier sat there blinking slowly, after a beat he laid back down, “no you don’t, I look like shit, just go, I'll text you later.”

Geralt let out an annoyed sigh, “ I'm not leaving until I see you, so I'll just be sitting out here when you’re ready to open the door.”

Jaskier listened and heard the sound of one of the chairs on his porch creak in protest as Geralt settled his large frame into it. The musician laid there waiting to hear the sound of his friend getting up and leaving, but it didn’t come. Even after waiting for a good 10 minutes there still was no sound of Geralt leaving the porch. 

Jaskier pushed himself to sitting and pulled the blanket off his lower half, keeping the one wrapped around his head pulled tight. He quietly shuffled his way across the living room to the front door. Pulling the shade away from the window that looked out on the front porch. He managed to glimpse Geralt sitting, in the dark, in one of the porch chairs, playing on his phone.

Keeping his eyes on the man through the window Jaskier  asked, incredulous , “are you seriously just going to sit there?”

He saw as Geralt scoffed, “are you seriously not going to unlock your door?”

Jaskier continued to stare at the man through the window, “why do you want to see me? I told you I look like shit.”

Geralt let out a low hmm, “and that’s why I want to see you, you aren't answering your phone, you claim you look like shit, and you won't open the door, all things out of character for you. I want to make sure you're alright.”

Jaskier just stood there, baffled, looking at his friend through the window,  “but why?” he practically cried.

He heard the growl as Geralt dropped his phone in his lap and rubbed his hands across his face in aggravation, “what do you mean why? I’m worried about you!”

Jaskier let the shade drop and turned to lean against the wall, “people don’t worry about me, Geralt."

“Well I'm here and I'm worried, now will you just open the damn door,” the larger man practically growled.

With resignation that Geralt wasn’t going to leave without seeing him, Jaskier flipped the bolt on the door before going back to the couch and flopping over on it, blue eyes, glassy from too much crying, trained on the screen in front of him.

Geralt opened the door, “that wasn’t so damn hard now was...oh,” all the anger dropped out of Geralt’s voice and was replaced with worry, his eyes flashed to Jaskier on the couch, “Jaskier...”

Jaskier tried to stop the tears as he heard Geralt’s tone change but he was ashamed, “are you happy now? No, I'm not fucking alright but you couldn’t leave well enough fucking alone, now could you?” the tears were streaming steadily as they made new tracks off the side of his face.

The look on Geralt’s face softened as he made his way through the moat of empty wrappers to sit next to Jaskier on the couch, “Jaskier, please, talk to me, what’s wrong?”

Jaskier sniffled and roughly wiped his face with the corner of the blanket he still had wrapped around his head, “well sometimes my depression decides that I'm just not fuckin’ sad enough and decided that it’ll fix that for me.”

Geralt was quiet for a second before asking, probably the dumbest question he could, “you have depression?”

Jaskier let out a harsh laugh, “shocking right, I, Jaskier, have depression, the funny one has depression, the one everybody wants to hang out with has depression, the musician without a care in the world is depressed. Yes, Geralt I have fucking depression,” he deadpanned without moving his eyes off the screen.

“Fuck, that was probably a stupid question, I'm sorry, is there anything I can do?”

Jaskier did turn his eyes from the tv then to look at the man on the other end of his couch, his blue eyes locking onto Geralt’s amber ones, “what?”

Geralt regarded him with soft eyes, “is there anything I can do to help you feel a bit better? I know that you probably won't actually start to feel better for a few days still, when your depression is more under control, but surely there’s something I can do to help you feel even a bit better now.”

Jaskier started to sit up, a confused look settled onto his features, “what? Why?”

A frown began to form on Geralt’s, previously, concerned face, “what do you mean why? I don’t like seeing you like this, food wrappers all over the place, wearing clothes that definitely should've been changed by now and clearly upset.”

Jaskier sat up fully and turned to look at his friend, cornflower blue eyes taking in the small frown and concerned wrinkles between his white brows,  quietly the musician spoke, “do you really mean that?”

Both the frown and lines on his friend's forehead deepened, “are you really so surprised that I'm here to check on you? Don’t your other friends get concerned when you disappear for days at a time?”

Jaskier started blinking rapidly to try and hold back the tears that had sprung to the surface. He failed, of course, and the tears started to fall freely, as soon as the first tear fell the creases between Geralt’s white brows were gone and the frown was replaced with concern written clear across his face. 

Rasing his hands Geralt settled them on Jaskier’s upper arms rubbing the blanket he found there and he rushed to apologize, “oh shit, Jask I’m sorry, shit, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

The musician pushed himself forward so his face collided with his friend's chest. Since Geralt’s hands weren’t holding anything anymore he wrapped them around the sobbing man, rubbing soothing circles into his back. 

After a bit Jaskier stopped crying but he didn’t move away from Geralt, if he was being honest, this was nice. Geralt had strong arms and a comfortable chest, Jaskier felt safe wrapped in his embrace and a little bit less sad than he had before Geralt had gotten there.

Jaskier already knew Geralt would never like him the way he liked the white-haired man, not to mention, look at him now! There was no way anyone would ever want to take on a sad musician full time so he figured, fuck it, as he rearranged himself to sit in Geralt’s lap, it’s not like he’ll ever get this kind of opportunity again. After Jaskier was settled, strong arms wrapped around him once more and Geralt held him.

It wasn’t like this kind of stuff was uncommon, Jaskier was a very hands-on person, even in the short few months since he’d met Geralt it was common for the smaller man to give him hugs and wrap his arms around his shoulders. He was even more handsy with Geralt since he was crushing, hard,  Jaskier jumped at any chance to lay hands on the man’s large frame.

Geralt was much better at keeping his hands to himself but never pushed the musician away from him, even now  with Jaskier fully sitting in his lap he just kept holding him and rubbing  soothing circles across his blanket clad body. 

Still sitting in Geralt’s lap with his friend holding him Jaskier mumbled out an apology, Geralt rumbled out a low hmm and Jaskier could feel it in his chest. The two men sat like that for quite a few minutes before Jaskier pulled away to sit back on the other side of the couch. Geralt let him go easily but kept his bright amber eyes trained on the smaller man.

Jaskier couldn’t find it in himself to meet Geralt’s eyes, choosing to stare at his pajama clad knees instead, “to answer your question, no my other friends usually don’t come and check on me, when I start ignoring them, they assume that I'm just being a prick and find someone else to hang out with.”

The frown is back on Geralt’s face and he lets out a low growl, “not even Susan or Andrew care enough to make sure  you're still alive?”

His band mates, sure they cared about Jaskier, as long as he was able to play. On the few occasions he had told them he was feeling some  kinda way and wasn’t going to be able to make a gig they just got pissed at him and complained that they were  gonna have to use their back up guitarist, who was nowhere near as talented as Jaskier.

Jaskier just shook his head, “they only care about what I can do for them, otherwise I'm just a liability. Nobody cares when I'm not up to being my happy, non-depressed self. I stopped telling people I was sad after a while, nobody cared anyway, so they just assumed I’m being a prick when I stop answering them and they ignore me.”

A large hand came into Jaskier’s line of sight where it landed on his chin and Geralt raised his face to make blue eyes meet amber. “well I care that you’re sad and I want to help you feel more like  yourself , if that’s ok with you.”

The tears started to well again but Jaskier managed to hold them back, Geralt stood off the couch then, looking at the sea of discarded food and drinks, “let’s start by cleaning up this area.”

Jaskier just sat on the couch and stared while Geralt started cleaning up everything that was tossed around the couch. After watching his friend for a moment Jaskier reached a hand out and put it on Geralt’s arm, “wait, you don’t have to do that, I made the mess and I'll clean it... eventually...”

Geralt gave him the  tiniest smile, “ I'm sure you will but probably not for several days so let me clean it up now, I don’t mind.” 

Jaskier’s hand dropped as he continued to watch Geralt clean up the mess he had made. It really only took a few minutes but the task had seemed insurmountable to Jaskier in his depressed state. Geralt was standing in front of him now, hands on hips, and Jaskier looked up at him to see a small but kind smile on his handsome features.

“How long have you been wearing those clothes?”

Jaskier looked down and his pajama pants again, an embarrassed blush warming his cheeks, “I  dunno , like 3 days...”

He peeked up at Geralt assuming he would find disgust there but instead all that was on his face was that same kind smile, “alright then I'll assume it's been that long or longer since you’ve managed a shower. Do you feel up to taking one or no?”

To be honest Jaskier just felt so tired all he really wanted to do was go back to zoning on the couch wrapped in his blankets. He dropped his gaze back to his pajama pants and said nothing, above him Geralt let out a soft hmm, “I'll take that as a no, we should really change your clothes at least, come with me to your room so we can get you clean pajamas?” 

That same large hand entered Jaskier’s line of sight and he took it as Geralt pulled him up off the couch, since the white-haired man had been to Jaskier’s place before he didn’t need instructions to his room. Once they were in Jaskier’s room the musician plopped down on his bed, and Geralt had to ask him which drawer his clothes were in. Looking at the dresser in question Jaskier mumbled out “top drawer”

Geralt reached in and grabbed the first shirt and pair of pants he came across. Turning to face Jaskier on the bed he asked where he kept his underwear, without  moving Jaskier mumbled out “second drawer.” 

After retrieving the necessary pieces of clothing Geralt dropped them on the bed next to Jaskier, “get changed alright, I'll be in the living room when you’re done.” 

The musician nodded as he stood up and removed the  blanket he’d had wrapped around his head the entire time Geralt had been there. As Geralt was closing the door he happened to glimpse Jaskier’s soft brown hair for the first time. A soft gasp left the white-haired man's lips as Jaskier turned to see what his problem was.

Geralt had pushed the door open again and had a hand raised to touch the mess on top of Jaskier’s head, “oh, Jask, your hair...” he trailed off as Jaskier turned to look at his hair in the mirror, where his brunet locks usually rested had been replaced with a tangled, disheveled, mess. The soft curls that formed around his face were crushed and his hair stuck up in every which way, most definitely made to look much worse because of the blanket he’d had on his head for hours. 

Jaskier dug his hands into the mess, his hair felt greasy and gross, he hadn't realized how bad it had gotten over the last few days. Again, the tears welled up looking at the state his hair was in, and again he tried to hold them back but he loved his hair and look at what he’d done to it. The tears began to spill over as his hands dropped out of the brunet mess. 

Geralt had come up behind him as he stared at his reflection and as the tears began to fall, he wrapped strong arms around the musician again. Jaskier turned in his embrace to press his face into Geralt’s neck as his hands desperately grasped handfuls of Geralt’s shirt. Geralt shushed him as he held him and tried to calm him down. 

“Jask, look, you have a bathtub here, right? Do you want me to wash your hair at least?”

The sobs quieted but Jaskier didn’t pull his face away from Geralt, “no, you’ve already done so much...”

Geralt interrupted him, “none of that, I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t want to help you. You can keep your shorts on and change into clean clothes after.”

Jaskier just stood in the larger man's embrace for a few minutes before barely nodding his head against the crook of his crush’s neck, a little voice in the back of Jaskier’s head kept saying that he was abusing Geralt’s friendship. That he was asking too much even though it was Geralt who offered in the first place. But having somebody willing to hold him and take care of him while he felt like dirt on the ground was too good to give up. He should've known that if anyone offered to help him, he’d end up taking advantage. 

Geralt's grip on the smaller man loosened and he turned to press Jaskier back into his bed, “stay here, I'll run the water.”

After Geralt had left, Jaskier fell over smooshing his face into the bed. A hand came up to touch the mess that was still on his head and he  whimpered at how bad it felt. His hair always got like this during one of his episodes but usually he was feeling better by the time he noticed. Having the state of his hair and dress brought to his attention while he felt like shit just added to the depression.

After a few minutes Geralt retuned and laid a large hand on Jaskier’s back, “the tub is ready, come with me?”

The musician pushed himself off the bed and allowed his friend to pull him into the bathroom. Once there, Geralt instructed him to strip down to his shorts before urging him into the bath. As Jaskier settled in he let out a sigh of relief, the water felt so good, and it would appear that Geralt had raided his closet to find some of his oils because the water smelled like chamomile and lavender. 

Jaskier let himself sink down until the water came up to his chin and he breathed in the warm air around him letting out another soft sigh when he heard a chuckle next to him. Peeking one soft blue eye open he glanced over to Geralt who was sitting on the toilet as he pulled his long white locks into a hair tie.

“I knew  you'd appreciate the oils, feels nice huh?”

Jaskier closed his  eyes again and nodded slipping slightly lower into the water, “just let me know when you’re ready for me to wash your hair,” his friend spoke softly next to him. 

Jaskier sat in the tub for a while before he looked at Geralt again, when he did his friend was still seated on the toilet scrolling through his phone. The smaller man shifted slightly to sit up straighter and the motion pulled amber eyes to the tub. 

“Are you ready for me to wash your hair? Is your shampoo in the shower?”

Jaskier nodded but when Geralt went to kneel down next to the tub Jaskier reached out and took the shampoo from him, “I can wash my hair, you can go and I'll be out shortly.”

Geralt’s white brows crinkled as his lips turned barely downward, “are you sure? I really don’t mind doing this for you and I feel like being able to be close to someone right now would probably be good for you...”

Geralt tried to hold his gaze but Jaskier dropped his head to look at the bottle in his hands, he really wanted Geralt to keep touching and soothing him but at the same time he didn’t want to look like a defenseless fawn in front of his very attractive crush. He sat in the warm, fragrant, water for a minute trying to decide what he wanted and, for the second time tonight, he decided fuck it, he wanted to be touched, even if it meant Geralt would probably lose all respect for him.

Head still downturned, the musician handed the bottle back to his friend who  hmm’d as he took the bottle from him and he mumbled out, “turn around and relax.”

Jaskier did as he was told and after a moment there was water washing over his brunet locks, the warm water felt wonderful running across his scalp and down his neck but that was nothing compared to when Geralt started to lather the shampoo. 

The groan Jaskier let out was indecent at best but Geralt’s hands felt so good and the poor musician was a bit touch starved currently. Above him he heard a soft hmm and he sat there like putty in his friend's strong hands while Geralt made sure every stand was properly cleaned. Entirely too soon after Geralt’s hands started their ministrations, they stopped and warm water was flowing across his scalp once more. Jaskier could whine at that loss but he bit it back as he focused on breathing in the fragrant air around him. 

Somewhere behind his head Geralt spoke, lowly, “do you use conditioner or anything else on  your hair?”

Jaskier thought about arguing again but then he remembered how good Geralt’s hands felt and he nodded. Without asking this time Geralt got up and retrieved the bottle of conditioner from the shower before settling in behind Jaskier again. 

Jaskier managed to bite back most of the groan this time as Geralt placed his hands in the smaller man’s hair, only letting a small sound make it past his lips. He pushed his head back into Geralt’s hands, much like a cat would, and that elicited a light chuckle from behind him. 

Soon enough Geralt was done and Jaskier’s hair was wet but clean. The smaller man didn’t get out of the tub immediately, he continued to enjoy the warm embrace of the water while Geralt returned to playing on his phone while sitting on the toilet. Jaskier caught himself staring at his friend after a few minutes. 

His gaze washed over the larger man’s face, taking in his handsome features. After a few breaths Geralt’s amber eyes glanced from his phone to the blue gaze peeking at him from in the tub. In a silent question he raised a white brow. 

Jaskier considered him for a moment longer, “I really am sorry.”

Geralt dropped his head before looking, once more, at the depressed man, “you don’t need to  apologize , I don’t...”

But he was cut off, “no, I'm sorry for worrying you, for not telling you I was in a bad spot. I’ve just become so accustomed to waiting out these... episodes... by myself and trying to pick myself up afterwards that, I guess, I didn’t realize that there might actually be someone who cared enough to try and help pick me up.”

Geralt’s face softened, “and I'm sorry that you ever felt that way.”

Jaskier broke his gaze away from his friend then, maybe his only true friend he thought, and looked at his hands in the water where they were nice and  pruney . Jaskier made to stand up and as he turned towards Geralt the man already had a towel in his outstretched arm. Jaskier took the towel, pressing his face into it and inhaling the clean scent. 

“I’ll go grab your clean clothes off your bed, just one sec,” he disappeared out of the bathroom and Jaskier set to drying his arms and chest. A moment later he returned setting the clean clothes by the sink, “I'll give you some privacy to get changed, come out when you're done,” Jaskier nodded mutely while Geralt closed the door behind him. 

Slipping off his soaked shorts he tossed them into the sink before pulling the drain on the tub and setting to dry his legs. He quickly got changed and then got to drying his hair some, he simply ruffled the towel through his hair, he couldn’t be bothered to style it properly. When he looked in the mirror his hair looked wild, but clean. He let out a content sigh as he ran a brush through the wet locks before turning and heading out of the bathroom. 

He found Geralt leaning against the kitchen counter. As he made his way over to him amber met cornflower blue and once he was within  arm's reach Geralt reached up and ran a large, calloused hand over Jaskier’s clean locks. 

Jaskier pushed his head into the large hand once more as Geralt let a smile show through his features, “do you feel better now that you’re clean?”

Geralt’s hand smoothed down his face and stopped to cup Jaskier’s cheek, the smaller man closed his eyes and nuzzled into the hand, “yes, actually, thank you,’” and he did too, the sadness that had engulfed his entire being had been shoved to the back of his mind and a warm,  contentedness had made its home in the front of his mind.

Geralt suddenly cleared his throat and dropped his hand and when Jaskier opened his eyes Geralt was pointedly not looking at him. The sadness swarmed back into his mind, wiping out the contented feeling that had been there, great, he’s upset or offended Geralt somehow. 

Taking a step back Jaskier cast his eyes down, “you can go now, thank you for checking up on me and helping me get cleaned up.”

He heard a low hmm from above him and that large hand was back on his chin, drawing his eyes up to meet Geralt’s, “I’m not done with you yet, Jask, when was the last time you ate or drank some water?”

Jaskier blinked up at the man, not quite grasping the question. He wasn’t leaving? He thought, for sure, he had done something stupid, showed too much affection to his ‘just a friend’ or his crush had tired of Jaskier’s depressed state, and Geralt was ready to make a hasty escape. 

Shaking him out of his thoughts with a slight brush of fingertips to jawline Geralt asked again, “ Jask , when was the last time you ate?” 

Looking away from Geralt’s handsome face to focus on the question he tried to remember. When was the last time he’d eaten? It'd been a while, the sun was still up the last time he remembered eating something and even then, it was just a handful of Cheetos. 

He brought his eyes back to that amber gaze, “I'm not really sure? It was a while ago and it was just a handful of junk food, so probably not for a while...” he trailed off, glancing downward again, slightly ashamed at his complete inability to care for himself when he got like this.

Dropping his hand away from the musicians face Geralt turned towards the fridge, “looks like you’re running low on groceries but I see you’ve got some ham left in here, do you have any bread? I’ll make you a sandwich.”

Jaskier walked over to the cupboard that housed the bread, pulled it out, and set it on the island before taking a seat on one of the island stools. He thought about protesting but that hadn’t gone well for him so far. So, he figured it was pointless. Jaskier sat and watched as Geralt pulled the ham and mayo out of the fridge and then started opening and closing drawers looking for utensils. 

He made the sandwich and then set out to find a plate and a cup, which he filled with water out of the pitcher in the fridge, and set the plated sandwich and glass of water in front of the depressed man and then took  a seat on one of the other island stools. 

Jaskier was picking at the sandwich and munching on it slowly, when Geralt cleared his throat, “I've been meaning to ask, do you get like this often? I know  I've never seen you like this but I assume it's happened before?”

Jaskier trained his eyes on the sandwich in his hands, “I mean, it doesn’t happen real often but every 6-12 months my depression just decides to kick me in the teeth and leave me as a sorry sack of shit on my couch, unable to take care of myself or care about anything really.”

He couldn’t bring himself to look at his crush as he let out a low hmm, “how long has it been like this for you?”

Jaskier tried to remember again. When was the last time he wasn’t plagued with unending sadness? “the first time I can  remember was when I was a teenager, but  it's been better since I started taking an antidepressant.” 

Another hmm from beside him and Jaskier picked away at this sandwich, “and you never try to reach out to anyone?”

“I mean, I told my parents when it started to get bad when I was younger but I was told I had no reason to be depressed and so I wasn’t. After I moved out, I sought help and got medication but for as long as I can remember whenever I told anyone I was sad, like depressed sad, they would just patronize me and tell me to call them when I was feeling better,” the musician’s stomach twisted at the memory of all the times he’d been turned away when he sought out comfort. 

He was quiet when he spoke again, “it just got to a point I assumed it was something I was intended to deal with on my own, behind closed doors.” Geralt let out a quiet hmm as the tears started to fall on the plate in front of Jaskier and the large man lifted a hand to press soothing circles into Jaskier’s back. 

They sat like that for a bit as the tears quieted and Jaskier finished his meal. Geralt stood to take away the dirty dishes, as he came back over to Jaskier he stood close enough to the smaller man’s side that Jaskier could rest his head on his friend's strong stomach, which he did, and Geralt rubbed a soothing hand up his arm. 

“Look, I'm  real sorry but it’s getting awfully late and I've got to get home and feed Roach, would it be ok if I came over again tomorrow to check on you? I could bring Roach, she's  real good at cheering people up.”

Jaskier nodded against his stomach and sat up to look up at him, “thank you,” he paused and glanced down and back up, “for caring.” 

An emotion that Jaskier couldn’t quite place flitted across his crushes handsome face before he was being pulled up with strong hands and Geralt was wrapping him in a tight hug, burying his nose in the crook of Jaskier’s neck. Had Jaskier been of sound mind he probably would’ve thought to question how easily they fell into this position but he couldn’t find it in himself to care right now and chose to focus on the steady rise and fall of his crush's chest.

Geral pulled them  apart and looked into Jaskier’s sad, blue eyes, hand back on his cheek, “you should probably get some sleep, do you want to lay down on the couch or your bed? Also, we should probably try and locate your phone so I can call you if I need to.” 

Geralt dropped his hand and turned to start glancing around for Jaskier missing phone. Jaskier simply went over to the couch and pulled the cushions off, for some reason it always ended up in or under the couch. He found it pretty quickly and realized it was dead. 

Finding Geralt he held up his prize, “it’s dead, I'll put it on charge in my room.”

He turned to head down the hallway but was caught by Geralt’s heavy hand on his shoulder, he turned to look up at those soft amber eyes, as the hand fell from his shoulder, “hey, I really had better get going, will you be alright to get yourself settled in for the night?”

Jaskier just looked at him with tired eyes, “ ya , I'll be fine,” he patted the large man on the chest before continuing down the hall to his bed, which he hadn't slept in for 4 days. Or trying to continue down the hall, his hand was caught before he could get  too far. 

Turning he looked up at Geralt, again, this time with a question in his gaze, “if you're still awake when your phone comes back on text me, ok? Let me know you're settled.”

Jaskier drank in the soft look in Geralt’s eyes and he stepped back to his crush and wrapped his arms around him yet again, Geralt returned the embrace and placed a feather light kiss on Jaskier’s, still damp, head. Jaskier let out a soft noise into that strong chest before mumbling out an ok.

The two men separated, saying their goodbyes as Jaskier turned towards his room and Geralt towards the front door. After he was settled beneath his covers, lights off and phone on charge he realized he probably should've seen Geralt out and made sure the door was locked. He thought about getting up and checking but he was already comfortable and drowsy, he was sure it’d be fine, it wasn’t like anybody came to his place anyway.

Laying on his side facing the night stand where his phone sat Jaskier watched at the screen lit up and the phone sprung back to life. He waited for all his missed messages to load and checked them. Several texts from people telling him that they hated it when he ignored them and a missed spam call, the usual, then he scrolled to Geralt’s messages.

There were 7 messages he hadn’t opened the first one was just a continuation of the conversation they’d been having but several hours after that the tone changed...

_ Jask, where are you, man? _

Several hours later, __ _ Duuuude _ _ it never takes you this long to respond _

A day later,  _ Hey, are you alright? _

A few more hours and 3 messages only a few minutes apart,

_ Jask _ _? _

_ Jaskier? _

_ I’m coming over. _

He felt the tears well in his eyes yet again over the kind man who cared if he was alright, a few fell onto his pillowcase and he wiped his eyes before typing out a message, 

_ I’m all settled in bed and my phones back on just fyi _

_ Thank you again for checking on me  _

_ I really do appreciate it _

He resisted the urge to tack a heart emoji onto the end of the last text and set his phone down and closed his eyes, not even 30 seconds later his phone chimed. He grabbed it from the stand and read Geralt’s latest messages, 

_ You’re welcome _

_ Text me when you wake up _

_ Get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow _

The  ever-present sadness had been pushed to the back of his mind again and warmth, much like the warmth he felt in the tub, bloomed across his mind allowing the tired man to fall  asleep quickly. 


End file.
